Dawn of Azazel performs a brutal style of death metal that recalls the likes of Decapitated circa Nihility. The style is appropriate for the genre at the moment to add character and drive to it. The effect of the band’s huge riffs is one that is both powerful and gripping.

The songs are fairly cohesive, but could be even more so. Also, the sound of dissonance added to this disc interesting, but could have been explored even further. An example of this is the first track Strike First, Strike Hard, Strike Often, which has a large element of dissonance, but mostly sounds weird for a large portion of its duration. This album also has some extreme positives on its side. It’s at least as interesting and dynamic sounding than the most recent Decapitated was. The jagged nature of the riffs is appealing because it isn’t explored in the death metal genre extremely frequently. The nature of the music is that it is off-tune and this is certainly a unique aspect of it. Thus, this band could also be compared to the likes of Soreption, who released an album of similar nature last year. Though the band does sound interesting and different, it remains to be seen whether they will continue into unique and noteworthy directions in the future. The production job on the album is reasonable and adds to the brutality present in particular. Many of these items are things that can be improved in the future and Dawn of Azazel looks to have a long one ahead. The atmosphere created by this band is one that is commendable, but still not as strong as what is created as Ulcerate, for example.

Still, this is a solid album for this point of the band’s discography and offers plenty of room for improvement. Dawn of Azazel left their mark with me on The Tide of Damocles, but only stronger things are in store for them in the future.